In 2006, over 8 million crimes were committed in major urban U.S. cities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has reported. The fbi compiled statistics taken from every major city in the United States with a population center equal to or higher than 100,000 citizens. Murders, forcible rapes, arson, robbery, aggravated assault, property crime, burglary, larceny and theft, motor vehicle theft and violent crime statistics were compiled to form a shocking picture of American lawlessness.

Among the more notable statistics from the report, Americans committed over 600,000 violent crimes, over 9,000 murders, more than 29,000 forcible rapes and 369,000 aggravated assaults.

America is rife with crime and the problem is getting worse. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton called the problem a “gathering storm of crime.”

According to a Police Executive Research Forum (perf) publication Chief Concerns: A Gathering Storm—Violent Crime in America, police chiefs from across the nation cite a basket of reasons for the spike in crime. Those reasons include America’s culture of violence, a lower valuation on human life, and a thug mentality glamorized by pop culture. Some blamed the reduction of police staffing and funding levels, while others said the American justice system shares part of the blame with its revolving door that is constantly releasing violent criminals back onto American streets.

The report adequately illustrates that there are a myriad of reasons why crime is occurring. However, it was Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis who rightly identified the breakdown of family as the elemental cause behind America’s 8 million crimes. He said, “[T]oo many kids having kids and too many kids raising themselves” (Chief Concerns: A Gathering Storm—Violent Crime in America, October 2006). Indeed, criminals are made, not born.

The foundational bulwark of any stable society—the family, especially fatherhood—is under attack. God’s law is either derided as outmoded and harsh or is twisted to suit America’s declining morality. In the meantime, as has been correctly observed, there is a direct correlation between the millions of crimes being committed and the quality of our nation’s family life and child rearing.

To learn more about the collapse of family and its connection to crime and other social pathologies, see our booklet Conspiracy Against Fatherhood.